Projecting Advani as PM candidate was mistake: BJP MP

Raipur, May 16 (IANS) Projecting L.K. Advani as the Bharatiya Janata Party’s prime ministerial candidate was a mistake, veteran BJP leader from Chhattisgarh Baliram Kashyap said Saturday as the party lost the Lok Sabha elections. “Projecting Advani as the PM candidate was a mistake and it was one of the reasons behind the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance’s (NDA) poor show in the Lok Sabha elections,” Kashyap told reporters at Jagdalpur town, district headquarters of Bastar.

Kashyap won the Bastar seat, reserved for the scheduled Tribes, for the fourth time in a row by a margin of about 100,000 votes. Bastar is one of the worst Maoist-hit regions in the country.

The 73-year-old tribal politician, who was the tribal welfare minister in the undivided Madhya Pradesh during 1990-92, is known for plain speaking.

Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Raman Singh greeted voters of the state for extending overwhelming support to the BJP in the state as the party won 10 of the state’s 11 seats.

“The BJP has bagged about 45.50 percent votes of the total votes polled in the state while the Congress vote share was just about 37 percent. I thank voters for such an overwhelming support to BJP,” Singh told reporters at a press conference here.